| THE RODNEY LEGG WALK
An eight mile walk through gentle countryside near Glastonbury
This happens to be another of our walks that links a trio of historic
villages. They are on an eight mile circuit through gentle countryside
near Glastonbury Tor. Each has a distinctive but very different parish
church and the same applies to their three public houses. The starting
point is dominated by the multiple twirling chimneys of Butleigh Court
and we set off into its parkland. It is pure mock-Tudor, built in 1845,
by architect J. C. Buckler. The village hero, Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel
Hood who commanded the Royal Navy in the East Indies, died of fever in
Madras on Christmas Eve in 1814. He is commemorated by a 110 feet high
Tuscan column, erected in 1831 on Windmill Hill, over looking Compton
Dundon on the Somerset Levels, with glimpses into Butleigh's country
side from the opposite side. Contemporary with this Samuel Hood was his
cousin Admiral Samuel Hood, eldest son of Butleigh vicar Rev Samuel Hood
who was created Viscount Hood and was also lost to Nelson's Navy through
poor health rather than enemy action, dying in 1816. His name would be
carried by the 42,100-ton Second World War battlecruiser which was sunk:
by a shot from the Bismarck with the loss of 3,000 men. The Hood
Monument had its turn on an earlier walk in this series, so the present
excursion heads eastwards instead with the River Brue and its streams
being the principal linear features in a landscape dominated by an
omnipresent Glastonbury Tor. En route, via paths that can be muddy at
any time of year - and subject to flooding in places - are the
communities -of Baltonsborough and Barton St David. The first has a fine
collection of secular Church- buildings clustering around St Dunstan's
parish church and the Ionic flourishes of the Gatehouse at the western
end of the village, with a 1637-dated porch with Tuscan pillars added at
the back. The church of St David gives its name to the village of Barton
and is notable not so much for its Norman survivals as the bolt-on extra
of a much later tower, octagonal in shape and Perpendicular in
attribution which is unique in Somerset in being set in the angle
between the north transept and the chancel. This is an architectural
style that has strayed westwards from Kent or East Anglia. Inside we
shall see a plaque claiming village ancestry for no less than two
Presidents of the United States of America -the second and the sixth -
whose family name can be treated as a Trivial Pursuit question until you
arrive there on foot or in the text. It's a letter longer than the names
of the two contenders for the next turn.
The Walk
Approach Butleigh by turning south from the A39 at Street or
westwards from the A37 at Lydford-on-Fosse. Park and start in the High
Street where the widest part is beside Butleigh Primary School (Ordnance
Survey map reference ST 522 337). Set off towards Street, uphill beside
the Post Office and telephone box, for 200 yards. Then turn right,
between the stone walls, into the drive to St Leonard's parish church.
It and Butleigh Court are to the left, beneath a huge Wellingtonia, and
our onward path is beside the parking space, through a kissing gate and
a little wood, then into parkland in 200 yards. Head north-eastwards
with Glastonbury Tor to your left, to the corner of the park in 400
yards where we exit through another kissing gate. Bear left across the
arable field, to the triple junctions around Moorhouse, in 600 yards.
Turn left and then keep bearing right, eastwards towards Baltonsborough,
to cross the River Brue at Wallyer's Bridge in 500 yards. Then in 400
yards after Noah's Ark, we come to ancient thatch at the Gatehouse. Next
is the Mill House with the Mill opposite. At the corner in 200 yards we
turn right, beside the yew tree opposite Willowmore Cottage, and follow
the north bank of the Mill Stream eastwards to the humped stone bridge
to the right of Baltonsborough churchyard in 400 yards. Here we have an
optional diversion, of 500 yards, through the 1826-dated pointed arch,
to visit St Dunstan's parish church and go along Church Walk to the
junction where we turn left and walk up to the war memorial (with its
Great War names on a 15-inch shell) and the Greyhound Inn. Our onward
route is now along the south bank of the stream, across the water from
the churchyard, and in 700 yards we pass St Anne's and Churchmoor Farm.
Both are opposite us on what is now the east bank (ours has become the
west) and we are heading south-east. We cross a farm road beside a
bridge and weir. Beyond the orchards and their mistletoe, in a further
700 yards, we come to the next weir and footbridges at Baltonsborough
Flights. Here several paths converge and ours proceeds straight ahead
over the River Brue, which now provides the bankside path. Its onward
stream cascades in the other direction as it drops into, the Somerset
Levels. We are heading upstream and keep the river to our left.
Dunstan's Dyke, as the causeway is known, brings us to Tootle Bridge in
nearly a mile. Catsham hamlet and a tarred road are on the opposite
bank. Turn right at the three-arch bridge, south-westwards along Mill
Road beside Mill House, to a junction in 250 yards. Here we continue
straight ahead to the next opening on the left, beside Meadow Vale, in
300 yards. Turn left, into a double- green (or muddy) Blind Lane, which
heads south-west and gently rises on to Peacock Hill, in 800 yards.
Ignore a right- offshoot. At the road junction on the slope, beside
Greenland Cottage, we turn left and pass Peacock Hill House and the
Hollies in 150 yards. Then turn right, westwards opposite Hollyhocks
Cottage, and descend to the right of the hedgerow into Barton St David,
heading for the church tower in 400 yards. Turn left in Broadclose Way
and walk up to St David's parish church in 60 yards. A plaque to
parishioner Henry Adams, who left aged 55 to found New England in 1638,
claims him as the ancestor of two Presidents of the United States,
namely John Adams and John Quincy Adams. From the church we heed north
from the octagonal tower, down Church Street, and pass the Old Vicarage.
On reaching the next corner, at Gregory's Orchard in 250 yards, we turn
left along a narrow and muddy green lane. In 200 yards, after following
a stream to a concrete fording point, we turn left across a stone stile
into a field. To the right, at the other end of Brook Lane, is the
redbrick Barton Inn in 200 yards. In the field we keep low-studded ditch
to our right and head north-east. Then cross the orchard to a stile in
the hedgerow immediately beyond the power cables in 200 yards. Turn
right in the next field and follow the ditch to the road in 100 yards.
Turn right and then left to re-cross the stream in 40 Yards. We are now
following the stream northwards, towards Glastonbury Tor, for 600 yards.
In the third field we turn left, uphill, and now head westwards. In the
second arable field, in 350 yards we ignore a green lane to our left and
follow the hedgerow stile beside a field gate. On entering this pasture
we right, to the stile in the cor-ner, in 75 yards. Bear right on the
other side and follow the hedgerow to the stile just to the left of the
following corner in 250 yards. Cross this paddock to stile at the kink
in the hedgerow in 30 yards. Turn right and then walk sraight ahead
across the centre of this arable field. We are heading westwards with
Glastonbury Tor to our right and the steeple of Butleigh church
projecting from left-hand skyline. Cross a track in 125 yards and
proceed straight ahead to a stile to the right of the transformer pole
in another 125 yards. Cross the stile, into a thicket, and bear left
down to the drive to Dove Workshops in 15 yards. Turn left, uphill, to
Barton Road in 50 yards. Turn right and bear right at the junction in
100 yards. Then in 300 yards we turn left, after Brook Farm, across a
stile into the field beside the wooded grounds. We are now heading
south-west, into the corner of the field beyond the house, in 200 yards.
Here we cross the stream and enter a field with three public paths. Ours
is straight ahead. Uphill to Butleigh Cross which is silhouetted on the
skyline in 500 yards. This is the parish war memorial, dating from 1920,
with a mediaeval cross-base reset on its steps. From here we continue
westwards, up the slope into Lower Hill Farm, in 100 yards. Turn right
across the stone stile beside the first farmyards gate. We are now
heading north, to proceed straight ahead in the arable field, descending
to triple stiles in the hedgerow to the right of Glastonhury Tor, in 400
yards. On the other side of the stream we bear right across a pasture to
stiles in 150 yards and then turn right, down to the gate opposite the
1882-built Sir George Bowles Hospital, now known as Butleigh Hospital,
in 75 yards. Cross to the gate and then follow the hedgerow straight
ahead across the pasture. Bear right in the cherry orchard, in 300
yards, to exit from the right-hand corner, beside Hunters Lodge bungalow
in the hamlet of Oddway. Here you have an optional diversion, 350 yards
to the left, to visit the Rose and Portcullis. Our onward route is the
other way, down the hill for 50 yards, to No. 64 Barton Road. Turn left,
along the grassy path, and then follow a narrow tarred path to the drive
and then the High Street, in 300 yards. We have returned to Butleigh,
with the school being at the third junction, in 400 yards.
|
 |
